Eli Sharabi's account of terror, and the deafening sound of silence

(JNS) — I watched Eli Sharabi. An eyewitness to horror. A forced journey through hell. I have no right to claim understanding. How can anyone?

Empathy is the only tool of the imagination to relate, but for these hostages, there is no precedent. Hearing him, I ask myself — could I remain this composed? He must be numb. How can he process 491 days of forced and torturous containment? He is now a free man in a deal with the devil. “Where are my wife and daughters?” he asks in the Israel hospital intake room. He learns for the first time that they have been murdered. How can he sit so calmly and deliver his account? What would I do? My mind is blank. Sharabi has a mission that rises above his personal pain — there will be time for that later, but now he must use his freedom to free others.

“I have come back from hell,” Sharabi announces into a microphone before the world representatives to the United Nations. Casually dressed with his name on a placard in front of him, it is hard to believe that just six weeks earlier, he was chained to a wall 15 meters (49.2 feet) below the earth in a tunnel built with international funds. His capture, his torture, the murder of his family — all sponsored by the humanist liberals who have willingly allowed his terror under layers of organizations and amidst the lies and denials. He calls out the United Nations for their deafening silence, the nations that have supported the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees scam, feeding terrorists while they starve hostages.

He candidly points out what cannot be denied. And yet, I wonder, will they listen?

Live video footage shows where the very terrorists are the star performers; voyeur in the most grotesque, brutal and violent acts visited on human beings — rape, mutilation, murder, depravity to a corpse — and not just the trained Hamas terrorists, but the civilians of Gaza. Sharabi calls them out, the frenzied celebration and willing involvement are not to be missed. The Hamas depravity spills into the streets of the very inhabitants whom the world cries for; the same world that ignores the facts, the same world that rationalizes and morally equivocates the actions of an extreme jihadist organization built on terror and the glorification of death; a glory not in the name of God (any god will suffice) but a glory rooted in the grisly pleasure of the subhuman, a thirst that can only be satiated by the complete genocide of the Jewish people and the annihilation of the State of Israel. This is not a conclusion I draw as a mere observer; it is a mission they proclaim openly. Yet despite the undeniable evidence, the world remains silent.

The humanists turn away from the truth. The feminists ignore the crimes against women. Those in the LGBTQ community hide behind a phraseology so absurd it would nauseate even the most open-minded. The haters call it “pinkwashing.”

The jihad has infiltrated our educational institutions. Teachers, entrusted with shaping the minds of future leaders, perhaps even a future president or prime minister, now champion their cause. They celebrate jihad, demean Israel and resurrect ancient blood libels. In every subject, Jews are vilified. Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign nation is openly denied. The true objective of jihad is ignored.

Our universities have become playgrounds for a syllabus of hate, breeding grounds for a renewed wave of antisemitism. And the world stands by. A deafening silence.

Eli Sharabi speaks plainly. There is no mistake in his calm demeanor as he tells his story, recounting 491 days spent in captivity and chained, “chained, starved, beaten and humiliated,” he says. “The chains they kept me in, tore into my skin from the moment I entered into the moment I was released,” he continues with a calmness, reading his notes. One look at him and you can tell how loosely fitting his suit is on him; he’s unable to hide his body’s frail betrayal, having survived on half a pita a day. He paints a picture of inhuman abuse. He could not walk more than four inches in his chains. Imagine, only a half of an inch to spread your body, to find any stretch possible as your muscles mold to their new reality and the nerves being compressed cause such immense pain that you would bite off your foot if you could.

A total of 491 days! And the world kept silent. UNRWA continued to be supported by the nations of the world and fed Hamas, who starved and brutally tortured the hostages. And for the hospitality, Sharabi was forced to celebrate them upon his release. Certificate in hand with a “grab bag,” his captors put him on display for one last time with the ultimate humiliation of forcing him to “thank” them. There is nothing in any literature that describes the devil that comes close to this theater of demons, yet the world remains silent. Not a single U.N. resolution to denounce the terrorists.

Sharabi ends his eyewitness account before the United Nations with a single message to the world and its leaders; “Bring them all home,” he says. “No more excuses, no more delays, no more moral blindness, you cannot claim to stand for humanity and abandon those who are still in hell, bring them all home now!”

Sharabi speaks, but is he heard? Will the unreasonable people stop? Will the demonstrations stop? Will the betrayal and dissonance of the world cease? I want to be optimistic here and say, “Yes, for sure now the world will listen.” But unfortunately, I know the true answer. It takes agency to land on the right side of history, it takes a responsibility to humanity and a strength of moral clarity — something that today is lacking.

Sharabi is a hero who stands before the world and declares his painful account. He is not concerned with himself, but rather, his mission to free all hostages still held in Gaza. We must never be silent and hide behind the obscene. There is always a time when good prevails over evil, when humanity takes it no longer, and when one person’s courage takes on the reins of leadership and says enough is enough.

Bring them ALL home now!

Israel Ellis, author of “The Wake-Up Call,” recently appeared on the Think Twice podcast with JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin.